paris je t'aime

now this is going to take some doing
trying to articulate my thoughts on this film
knowing i would be attempting to do such a thing
i decided from the first of the 17 short films
that make up the total film
to try and put to memory each short story in order
or at least something of significance to jog the memory later
i got to 5 and then found i was focused on that task
rather than what i should have been doing
which was to simply enjoy the film
without trying to memorise, theorise, analyse
this film is a curious mixture of many different films
the point in common is the location of paris
love, partnerships, breakups are also a common thread
i was actually prepared for the film being a loose collection
but hadn't expected to experience such diversity
in the themes, styles and direction of the 17 short stories
and in true consistent inconsistency
some stories had an opening title whereas most did not
it took a bit to get used to that fact often one was over
and we had embarked on another story without warning
but that would have been fully intentional no doubt
thinking about what really makes the film so good
is that as a viewer i was very quickly empathetic
with the character or characters central to each story
the opening story being a great example of that
it started out with the daily issue for a lot of city-dwellers
...finding somewhere to park the car
the way in which we behave during the search
and the even sillier way in which we protect our patch when won
things got serious after that but it was a clever opening
another favourite story featured a silent steve buscemi
completely out-beaning rowan atkinson
hilarious stuff set in a metro station
there was a marcel marceau tribute
featuring a mime artist moving around
some famous paris landmarks
the tragedy imbued in another film
in which the victim of a random act of violence
dies in the arms of the woman
he loves and has sought the attention of
also demonstrates how quickly empathy is obtained
and sadness then also drawn out
things got almost scary
for this abstainer of horror flicks
with none other than elijah froddo wood
featuring in a quite dark and surreal vampire story
another favourite had us set up to expect the worst
in the clash of cultures our media is hammering us with
but it instead had an otherwise unexpected ending
one review i did read prior to seeing the film
suggested it would take repeated watchings
to pick up a lot of the more subtle detail
i'm hoping over the next few days
more detail will come to mind
but i suspect that reviewer is correct
and that this french pulp fiction
can be watched and enjoyed more than once